mit to this supreme transformation, it would be broken up,
purified by fire, and by the breath of God. A new heaven would be
created, and the entire world would be peopled with the angels of
God.[1]

[Footnote 1: Matt. xxii. 30.]

A radical revolution,[1] embracing even nature itself, was the
fundamental idea of Jesus. Henceforward, without doubt, he renounced
politics; the example of Judas, the Gaulonite, had shown him the
inutility of popular seditions. He never thought of revolting against
the Romans and tetrarchs. His was not the unbridled and anarchical
principle of the Gaulonite. His submission to the established powers,
though really derisive, was in appearance complete. He paid tribute to
Caesar, in order to avoid disturbance. Liberty and right were not of
this world, why should he trouble his life with vain anxieties?
Despising the earth, and convinced that the present world was not
worth caring for, he took refuge in his ideal kingdom; he established
the great doctrine of transcendent disdain,[2] the true doctrine of
liberty of souls, which alone can give peace. But he had not yet said,
"My kingdom is not of this world." Much darkness mixed itself with
even his most correct views. Sometimes strange temptations crossed his
mind. In the desert of Judea, Satan had offered him the kingdoms of
the earth. Not knowing the power of the Roman empire, he might, with
the enthusiasm there was in the heart of Judea, and which ended soon
after in so terrible an outbreak, hope to establish a kingdom by the
number and the daring of his partisans. Many times, perhaps, the
supreme question presented itself--will the kingdom of God be realized
by force or by gentleness, by revolt or by patience? One day, it is
said, the simple men of Galilee wished to carry him away and make him
king,[3] but Jesus fled into the mountain and remained there some time
alone. His noble nature preserved him from the error which would have
made him an agitator, or a chief of rebels, a Theudas or a Barkokeba.

[Footnote 1: [Greek: Apochatastasis panton], _Acts_ iii. 21.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xvii. 23-26; xxii. 16-22.]

[Footnote 3: John vi. 15.]

The revolution he wished to effect was always a moral revolution; but
he had not yet begun to trust to the angels and the last trumpet for
its execution. It was upon men and by the aid of men themselves that
he wished to act. A visionary who had no other idea than the proximity
of the last judgment, woul